Russia intensified its attacks with kamikaze aircraft hours ahead of the Iranian-made commemorations, striking targets in Ukraine as the victory day events loomed. The onslaught triggered power outages across at least six districts in Moscow and rippled to other cities, while artillery fire from Russian units pressed Ukrainian positions in contested areas. In Donbas, the battle around the town of Bakhmut stretched on, as Moscow pushed to seal control over a site already marked by brutal, protracted fighting.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported roughly sixty strikes in a single day, with more than half delivered by unmanned drone systems aimed at the capital. He noted that none of the enemy drones breached Kyiv’s air defense systems, yet debris occasionally fell on residential neighborhoods, causing injuries to at least five residents. Two other civilians sustained injuries in the Kherson region as well.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy detailed the outages on its Telegram channel, naming the Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions. Kyiv and Odesa escaped a complete power disruption, according to the update. Ukrenergo teams worked around the clock to restore service as quickly as possible, restoring electricity to many customers after disruptions that affected more than 24,000 households. In Odesa, a food warehouse suffered fire damage amid the strikes, drawing sharp condemnation from the local Red Cross. A spokesperson stated that humanitarian aid stock in the warehouses serving the Odesa region was entirely destroyed by the blaze, complicating relief efforts for residents in need [citation].
cultural connections
Ukraine has commemorated the victory over Nazi Germany since 2015 with a distinct national narrative that emphasizes emancipation from Moscow’s influence, especially around May 9. This contrasts with Russia’s traditional observances and aligns Ukraine with Western allies in reframing the memory of the war. President Volodymyr Zelensky uses the anniversary to draw parallels between the Second World War and Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for sovereignty, a rhetoric that resonates with many Ukrainians while provoking irritation among Moscow’s leadership. Zelensky has asserted that the regime in Russia will face a fate comparable to that of historical tyrannies, framing the conflict in apocalyptic terms for the Kremlin’s narrative of liberation against Nazism. The Ukrainian president’s stance mirrors a broader push to redefine defeat of Nazism as a common cause fought under a Ukrainian banner, a shift that irks political actors in Moscow and among Kremlin supporters [citation].
This framing is frequently defended in the West but also criticized by Russian officials. The Permanent Mission of Russia to the European Union accused twenty-seven member states of attempting to rewrite history by equating the Ukraine conflict with the Second World War. In its Telegram channel, the delegation argued that the sole similarity lies in Russia’s claimed fight against Nazism for freedom and security, while asserting that many European nations that fought alongside Nazi Germany also provided arms and volunteers to Kyiv’s regime, a claim presented as evidence of a broader, troubling history [citation].